Digital Innovation in Healthcare: Creating a Health Service Fit for the Future

Overview

The digital health landscape is moving at pace. The global market for digital health is expected to reach almost £43billion by 2018 and over £408billion by 2025. The Prime Minister has pledged to bring forward a long-term funding plan for the NHS in response to growing concerns that key health services are being overwhelmed by rising demand. This rapid growth means that there is a wealth of innovative solutions available to health providers, many of which could transform services and offer tangible opportunities for addressing the current challenges facing the healthcare system. This event will explore how the NHS can drive through service improvement using new digital technology, information and innovations.

As digital technology continues to evolve the parameters of care are also shifting. Remote monitoring, Internet of Things, wearable and smartphone technology are all becoming more common and it is individuals who will increasingly hold important health data and can be empowered. Used collectively, could such data and information improve our health system beyond recognition?

Now considered science fact rather than science fiction Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are wired into everyday life. From personal assistance, such as Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, to driverless vehicles AI is now playing a major role in advancing people’s lives and changing how we engage with technology. AI could help predict which individuals or groups of individuals are at risk of illness and allow the NHS to target treatment more effectively. How will health services build on the revolutionary potential of AI, algorithms and data in healthcare? Can the NHS make the most of digital innovations to drive more integrated care pathways and better respond to the needs of patients?

Digital Innovation in Healthcare: Creating a Health Service Fit for the Future will support care providers to develop a modern, efficient and responsive health service fit for the future. The agenda will include practical examples of service transformation, new care models and information sharing that can help drive a more convenient and personalised health and care service.

The impact of the 2017/18 winter crisis in the NHS is still reverberating. Official figures released for February confirmed that A&E waiting times, often held as a barometer for system performance, hit the worst levels on record. More than a thousand patients were left waiting for 12 hours or more in trolleys waiting for a bed in hospital. According to the King’s Fund, healthcare is taking up an increasing proportion of the UK’s gross domestic product – almost 8% compared to just 3.4% 50 years ago and is set to increase further. In response to widespread concerns that the NHS is being overwhelmed by demand the Prime Minister has pledged to bring forward a long-term funding plan. Part of the solution, across the health and social care system, is transforming care models and making the most of new technologies and data in healthcare.

Innovation in healthcare is opening up new possibilities to treat patients remotely, to improve patient flow through digital appointments and acute discharge, to access medical records on the road for community practitioners, and to share information from emergency services on route to hospital. The challenge for health providers is to ensure new opportunities can be grasped, that NHS staff have the right digital skills and the right technology in place to improve care.

As digital technology continues to evolve the parameters of care are also shifting. Remote monitoring, Internet of Things, wearable and smartphone technology, are all becoming more common and it is individuals who will increasingly hold important health data and be empowered. Transforming care relies on the receptiveness and digital capabilities of the UK’s 60million potential users alongside care providers. Evidence suggests that 80% of those members of the general public who are aware of healthcare digital technology are very much in favour of it. However, 83% of NHS trusts are unprepared for the impact of wearable technology and practitioners are unwilling to use it unless there is evidence of benefits.

It is not just in the NHS where innovation can help meet care demands. A huge potential benefit of remote technology is that people can more easily remain in their own homes whilst being properly monitored. They can also be monitored whilst in care homes instead of having to be admitted to hospital. Given that the annual cost to local government of adult social residential care is approaching £10billion annually, there is potential for digital technology adoption to help local authorities meet demand in social care.

Digital Innovation in Healthcare: Creating a Health Service Fit for the Future will support care providers to develop a modern, efficient and responsive health service fit for the future. The agenda will include practical examples of service transformation, new care models and information sharing that can help drive a more convenient and personalised health and care service.

Keynote Address

Innovation in healthcare is opening up new possibilities to treat patients remotely, to improve patient flow through digital appointments and acute discharge, to access medical records on the road for community practitioners or to share information from emergency services on route to hospital. The challenge for health providers is to ensure new opportunities can be grasped, that NHS staff have the right digital skills and the right technology in place to improve care.

SBRI Healthcare is an NHS England initiative, led by the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN), who aim to promote UK economic growth whilst addressing unmet health needs and enhancing the take up of known best practice.

Virtual Reality technology is still in its infancy, but the technology is improving and becoming more affordable to a point where it will become a more mass-market device. Currently the main market for VR is in entertainment. An area that is developing is its use within a healthcare setting, and the potential to improve rehabilitation techniques and help distract patients during painful treatments.

The role of strategic system redesign in transformation and safe and effective health and care provision.

14:40

Question and Answer Session

15:00

Afternoon Refreshment Break

15:30

Richard Harding, Digital Innovation Lead, NHS Digital (confirmed)

"Sharing Information, Interoperability and Integrated Care"

With the NHS undergoing a sustained period of transformation, there is a clear need for more effective information sharing between care settings, organisations and geographies, as well as between professionals and citizens, to optimise patient outcomes and quality of care. This is reliant on the ability of IT systems across health and care to be interoperable with one another, and is key to the delivery of the future vision of care in England.

Digital Health Skills: Reducing Inequalities, Improving Society

Sponsors

Supporters

Venue

The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Construction of The Bridgewater Hall commenced on 22 March 1993, but the idea of a new concert hall for Manchester dates back to the reconstruction of the Free Trade Hall in the 1950s after wartime bomb damage. The Free Trade Hall was home to the city’s famous Hallé orchestra and also hosted rock and pop concerts. However, despite holding great public affection, the 1850s Free Trade Hall was ill-equipped to respond to the rising standards of service and acoustic excellence demanded by performers and audiences.